Nomura taps new CFO in biggest staff reshuffle in 10 yrs

TOKYO, March 5 Nomura Holdings Inc
replaced its chief financial officer and shrunk its line-up of
senior managers as part of the Japanese brokerage's largest
annual reshuffle in a decade.

The reshuffle - the biggest since 2003 in terms of the
number of employees changing roles - is the first since Koji
Nagai took over as CEO promising to rebuild the company from
"the ground up" in the wake of an insider trading scandal.

The moves, effective April 1, are broadly aimed at reducing
overlap among senior management as well as fostering better
collaboration between business divisions, people with knowledge
of the matter said.

Among the changes, Nomura said the number of senior managing
directors, the firm's top layer of management, was reduced to 71
from 80. Those ranks peaked at 105 after Nomura bought parts of
failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Nomura said Shigesuke Kashiwagi, a 31-year company veteran
who has recently focused on regulatory affairs, would become
chief financial officer, replacing Junko Nakagawa, who will head
the group's internal audit operations.

Nagai took over as CEO in August promising reform in the
wake of a damaging scandal in which staff were found to have
tipped off clients ahead of share offerings the brokerage
underwrote. Within weeks, Nagai embarked on a $1 billion
restructuring mainly targeting the brokerage's overseas
operations. He also vowed to bolster cooperation between the
retail and wholesale divisions to meet customer needs.

In one example of a staff move aimed at promoting such
cross-divisional collaboration, Nomura tapped the lead banker
covering the telecommunications, media and technology sectors as
the new manager of its Kyoto branch.

Gary Cottle, head of global markets for European, Middle
East and Africa, and Charles Pitts-Tucker, joint international
head of investment banking, were the two non-Japanese executives
promoted to senior managing director.

Nomura shares have almost doubled in value since
mid-November, outperforming the Nikkei average, which is
up by more than a third.